


A Break In Time

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, Gen, Gen Work, river's madcap adventure, rory just does as he's told
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-15
Updated: 2015-07-15
Packaged: 2018-04-09 10:13:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4344563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rory and River decide to take a break from the Doctor and his adventures, but things don't go quite according to plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Break In Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [deinonychus_1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deinonychus_1/gifts).



> Written as a present for the lovely deinonychus_1 who gave the prompt “All they wanted was some relaxing downtime on an alien planet. Was that too much to ask?”

"So, four moons and two suns, then?”

“Beautiful isn't it? I'll take you to the Botanical Gardens later, they take up one fifth of the planet.”

Rory looked at River out of the corner of his eye, trying to check whether she was joking, but it seemed not, so he just nodded. You just had to take these things in your stride when you travelled with the Doctor. Talking of...

“Do you think we'll be seeing either of them before nightfall?”

“Probably not,” River said with a grin. “You know how he likes to show off, especially with an audience.” She smiled fondly at Amy, who was helping the Doctor with, something, that none of them really understood. Well, River did, but she'd pretended not to and the Doctor had gone off in something of a sulk. Though no one had said as much.

“So, I guess I'm all yours then,” Rory said.

River smiled and took his arm in hers. “Come on, then, Dad, let me show you the wonders of the planet.”

Rory grimaced but allowed himself to be dragged along the street. “Must you say that out loud?”

“Yes,” River said, unapologetic, and Rory found himself smiling back. He didn't mind really. It was just, odd. Never to have watched her grow as a father, but doing it as a friend. The whole thing made his head, and his heart, ache if he thought about it too much.

* * * * *

“How high up are we?”

“Probably higher than you want to think about,” River replied. She leaned over the railing, her hair blowing in the wind. Rory manfully stopped himself from pulling her back, but it was a close call. “It's a beautiful view,” she said.

“I can see it just fine from here,” Rory said, from several metres back. He was looking up at the video screen which showed exactly the same view as leaning over the railing, but was significantly less likely to make him throw up.

“Where's your sense of adventure?”

“Back there in a box,” Rory said, pointing vaguely towards where he thought the TARDIS was still parked.

River turned to look at him, fond and exasperated all at once. They both knew his sense of adventure was a lot more ingrained than all that, but he found it paid to keep a tight rein on it. “He's lucky to have you.”

Rory shrugged. “We're lucky to have him.”

* * * * *

“What is it again?”

“Probably best you don't know,” River said. “Just drink it.” She took a swig of her very purple drink and signalled the robotic waiter to bring them two more. Rory was certain he was about to be drunker than he ever had before.

The drink went down pretty smoothly, it was on the way back that it wasn't quite as nice. Rory felt like his head was going to explode, made worse by River's laughter.

“I'm dying.”

“No you're not. It's supposed to feel like that!” And so saying she downed her fourth glass of whatever the hell it was.

Rory decided he'd created a monster as he lay his head down on the counter in front of him.

He idly wondered why it was that River's laughter was making the counter vibrate when he was roughly grabbed by the neck and thrown to the floor. Glass shattered all around them and River hissed in his ear for him to “keep low and move”.

“Not your laughter then?” he murmured to her.

“What?” she asked, distractedly. “We're under attack.”

“Who by?” Rory asked, sobering up pretty quickly. Once he might have questioned what they were doing, but it seems he'd been travelling with the Doctor far too long for that now.

“No idea, does it matter?”

Rory had to agree, as the building shook for the third time, that no, it probably didn't.

He and River snuck around the counter to the bar and then headed toward the far exit, dodging chairs and robotic waiters that apparently were not programmed to deal with an attack like this.

As they pushed open the door and stood upright, both turning back at the same time to observe the carnage they were leaving behind them, Rory could only spare a moment to think that of course they couldn't have had a nice father daughter bonding moment without being interrupted, when the familiar intonation of a Sontaran voice came over the tannoy.

“This planet is ours as decreed by subsection 19 of the Hanton Convention. Proceed in an orderly fashion to the Courtyard of the Rising Moons for your orders.”

The message kept on repeating itself, though Rory was no clearer on what they wanted the first time than he was the twelfth. Even River was looking confused.

“What's going on?” he asked her, a little breathlessly as they ran down the stairs to the ground floor.

“Five of the planets in this solar system have been at war,” River explained, sounding not at all breathless. “I suppose one of them had to form an alliance with the Sontarans at some point.”

“And that point just had to happen while we're here with the Doctor?”

River laughed. “Of course dear. Wouldn't want him getting bored now, would we?”

Rory stopped on the last flight of stairs, a terrible thought occurring to him. “Did you know this was going to happen?”

River spun around on her heels, her dress floating out around her. “Me, dear?” She shrugged and gave her most innocent expression. “I think that would count as a spoiler.” Then she blew him a kiss and disappeared through the door next to her.

Rory stared at it for a moment, not quite sure how he was supposed to react to this development. Then River poked her head back around the door.

“Well,” River asked, “would you like to save this universe or not?”

“Right,” Rory said. “Yes, of course.”

How _did_ he keep getting himself into these messes?

* * * * *

River was dragging him by the hand, across a walkway and down a slippery slope before Rory really knew what had hit him. He had decided that he wasn't going to get any answers to his questions, so had decided not to ask any. That didn't mean he was sulking, as River had accused, it merely meant that he was being sensible.

“Shouldn't we fetch the Doctor?” he finally asked, as they crouched low behind a rock.

River shook her head. “Where would be the fun in that?”

“Where's the fun in this?” Rory countered.

River merely looked disapproving. “Are you really going to tell me you're not enjoying yourself?”

Rory opened his mouth to deny it, and found to his annoyance that he couldn't; this is where travelling with the Doctor got you.

“Fine, what's the plan then?”

“Who said I had a plan?” River replied.

“You always have a plan.”

She reached down into her boots and pulled out a gun. “How's your aim?”

Rory took it and checked the electrical charge was set to stun only. He did it without even thinking about it, fingers moving across the controls as if he'd been handling this type of weapon all his life.

“Yes?” he asked, when he noticed how closely River was watching him.

River smiled. “Nothing, nothing at all. Come on then.”

She stood up, her own weapon in her hand and started marching towards where the citizens of the town were being fielded. She and Rory slipped easily into the crowd, moving towards a machine Rory could hear humming nearby. He noted the way that everyone was keeping their distance from it.

“What is that?” he whispered to River. He looked around nervously, but no one seemed to be paying them any attention.

“When everyone's here, they'll switch on that forcefield and no one will be allowed to leave. Some will be taken as slaves. The others will be left to die.”

“How do we destroy it?”

“See those red rings?” River asked, pointing. Rory nodded. There was one on either side. “You hit your bullseye and I hit mine.”

“And if we miss?”

“I wouldn't advise it.”

Rory took a deep breath and nodded. It seemed like they'd only have a short amount of time to try this anyway, what with the increase in guards walking around the perimeter. He didn’t recognise the weapons they were carrying, but he was certain they would do a lot of damage if fired.

“On three?” River asked.

“Three it is,” Rory agreed.

As plans went it was pretty madcap, but then Rory didn't bat at eye at madcap these days. And at least with River you were fairly sure the plan would actually work the first time.

Unfortunately, now was not one of those times. The shooting went off without a hitch, but rather than turn the forcefield off it transported River and Rory onto the Sontaran ship. And the Sontarans were not exactly thrilled about that development.

Luckily for everyone, the Doctor was able to transport them into the TARDIS before too much damage was done, either to Rory or to River's pride.

“Honestly,” River was saying, “I had the whole thing under control.”

Rory would have pointed out the flaw in that statement, only Amy was too busy kissing the life out of him. Next time, he'd rather get straight to the kissing and avoid the adventure altogether.

Somehow though, that didn't seem very likely.


End file.
